Wyandotte County KS

Biography of James H. Luscombe

James H. Luscombe is present county attorney of Wyandotte County. He was elected in 1916 by a majority of 1,070 on the democratic ticket. He has been practicing law at Kansas City, Kansas, for the past eighteen years and entered the law after a long service as a plaster contractor. The chief factor in his success either as a mechanic or as a lawyer has been hard work. He is noted for the zeal and efficiency with which he handles every interest entrusted to his charge, and his uprightness of character and other qualifications made him one of the strongest … Read more

Biography of Roy Pitts

Roy Pitts is chief of the fire department at Independence. During his two years in that office he has developed the service to a high point of efficiency, partly by organization and partly by the introduction of modern apparatus, so that Independence today can boast of as perfect an equipment for fighting fire as any city of its size in Kansas. When Mr. Pitts took charge of the department the apparatus consisted of a chief’s car and a horse-drawn hose wagon. Since then he has taken the lead in giving the city a better apparatus. The city now has three … Read more

Biography of Albert Julius Holzmark

Albert Julius Holzmark. The career of the late Albert Julius Holzmark in Kansas City, Kansas, left its impress upon many forms of business activity, upon institutions of a civic, social and religious nature, and upon the lives of a great many individuals. He was a man of the highest character, of unexampled business integrity, was successful and made his success count toward the forwarding of the good of a large community. His life was one of achievement from small beginnings. He was born in Koenigsburg, Germany, April 22, 1867, the oldest of the three children of Isidor and Theresa Holzmark. … Read more

Biography of James L. Beggs

James L. Beggs, who for six years had been commissioner of streets and public improvements in Kansas City, Kansas, had been a resident of that city thirty-seven years, and first knew the town when it was in the earlier stages of its development. For a number of years he had been well known in public affairs, and is also one of the city’s most capable business men. Mr. Beggs was born on a farm near Belfast, Ireland, December 6, 1869, but he had lived in the United States since two years of age. He was third in a family of … Read more

Biography of Stephen A. Miller

Since the death of Chief Journeycake, Stephen A. Miller, a well known farmer and oil man of Nowata county, has been acting chief of the Delawares. He is now residing on his farm, three-quarters of a mile south of Delaware. A native of Kansas, he was born in Wyandotte county, on the 27th of September, 1863, a son of Andrew and Sallie (Hill) Miller. His father was born in White River, Ohio, and was one of the first settlers in Kansas. He came to Indian Territory with the first Delawares, to which tribe he belonged, and locating at Coodys Bluff, … Read more

Biography of Leonard V. McKee

Leonard V. McKee. The life, the personal character and the influence of Leonard V. McKee impressed themselves strongly upon the formative period of Marshall County’s history. He was founder and president of the Frankfort State Bank, was a large land owner and one of the leading business men and citizens of the community. He was born in Allen County, Ohio, August 18, 1845, and died at his home in Frankfort, Kansas, December 22, 1916, aged seventy-one years, four months and four days. His parents, Robert and Sarah (Dunlap) McKee, were both natives of Ohio. His father was a cabinet maker … Read more

Biography of James McGrew, Hon.

Hon. James McGrew was one of the historic characters of Kansas, has a place in the history of the state at large because of his early activities and influence as a free state man, and his service in the office of lieutenant governor, while locally he is to be credited with much of the enterprise which entered into the foundation of the present metropolis Kansas City, Kansas. He was born in Adams County near the great battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, January 26, 1822, and died at his beautiful old home, erected in the early days, and known as McGrew’s Grove, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of S. T. Blades, M. D.

S. T. Blades, M. D. The problems of health are really the problems of life and must pertain to all questions of human interest. Useless is wealth or station and vain are great achievements if good health is lacking. Thus comes the great value placed on the services of that body of noble men who have dedicated their lives to the healing art. The most necessary resident in any community is the physician, although he probably is never fully appreciated and seldom does he claim any foremost place, although his usefulness entitles him to it. Among the well known medical … Read more

Fisher, Albert – Obituary

Haines, Baker County, Oregon Well Known Haines Resident Passes Albert Fisher, 75, Was Active Citizen Albert Lindsey Fisher, 75, Haines died Friday afternoon in St. Elizabeth Hospital. Mr. Fisher, son of James R. and Minerva Fisher, was born in Edwardsville, Kansas June 19, 1888. He came to Oregon in 1907 and lived at Haines where he was a rancher and farmer, except for five years when he was a crew foreman for the California Forest Service. He was married to Emma Belle Welch in Haines on March 15, 1911. He was a member of the Grange, of the Baker county … Read more

Biography of William Hoffman

William Hoffman is president and manager of the Stock Yards Serum Company of Kansas City, Kansas. This is a company whose name and products are familiar to all the progressive hog raisers throughout the Middle West. Mr. Hoffman is a veteran in experience in the packing industry, and some years ago applied his practical knowledge, together with some capable associates, in giving Kansas City, Kansas, a special plant and laboratory for the production of a serum that would answer a widespread demand for an adequate preventive of hog cholera. Thus in 1910 the Stock Yards Serum Company was organized and … Read more

Biography of Samuel N. Simpson

Samuel N. Simpson. A notable life came to a close with the death of Samuel N. Simpson on November 27, 1915: Important though his achievements were in the field of business and in the development of many useful enterprises and undertakings in the cities of Lawrence and Kansas City, Kansas, it is because his activities and influence were so vitally identified with the primitive period of the territorial Kansas that his individual history bulks so large in the annals of the state and furnishes a chapter that may be read with instruction and profit by every student of Kansas annals. … Read more

Biography of Walter Roscoe Stubbs

Walter Roscoe Stubbs. The distinctive features of the service rendered by Mr. Stubbs as governor of Kansas from 1908 to 1912 had been described on other pages of this history. A few other details as to his work as governor and something as to his personality and career will be of wide interest to the citizens of Kansas. Everyone knows former Governor Stubbs as a man of wonderful business ability and of absolute integrity. It is only natural that the resources of personal character should be partly explained at least by reference to ancestry. When it is explained that Governor … Read more

Biography of Edward Alexander Enright, Hon.

Hon. Edward Alexander Enright. Distinguished as a statesman as well as for his achievements at the bar, Edward Alexander Enright is an honored, valued and admired citizen of Kansas City. For almost a quarter of a century he has been a prominent factor in the law and in public affairs, and his name stands foremost among the leaders who have organized, fathered and vitalized many of the progressive movements which have made Kansas the great commonwealth it now is. Edward Alexander Enright was born September 17, 1858, at West Burke, Vermont, the seventh in a family of nine children born … Read more

Biography of John McNarrey

John McNarrey. The fireman is the favorite popular hero of peace. The records of fire departments in large cities are brightened by deeds of splendid courage and devotion to duty, and firemen are men proved in fire literally and figuratively. Chief John McNarrey of the Kansas City, Kansas, fire department is a fine example of the best in this service. He had been almost continuously connected with the local department for twenty-four years. When he began with the department it had only three fire stations or houses and at the present time as chief he had direction of the men … Read more

Biography of Maurice L. Alden

Maurice L. Alden, a son of the late Judge Henry L. Alden, had since his admission to the bar in 1898 become a prominent member of the Kansas City legal profession, and inherits many of the enviable qualities that distinguished his father. He was born in old Wyandotte, now Kansas City, Kansas, October 10, 1873, was educated in the public schools, graduating from the Kansas City Kansas High School in 1891 and from the Kansas State University in 1895. At the age of twenty-one he became secretary to Congressman O. L. Miller, who represented the Second Congressional District of Kansas … Read more

Shawnee Indian Chiefs and Leaders

Prophet's Rock view

Big Jim Big Jim. The popular name of a noted full-blood Shawnee leader, known among his people as Wapameepto, “Gives light as he walks”. His English name was originally Dick Jim, corrupted into Big Jim. He was born on the Sabine Reservation, Texas, in 1834, and in 1872 became chief of the Kispicotha band, commonly known as Big Jim’s band of Absentee Shawnee. Big Jim was of illustrious lineage, his grandfather being Tecumseh and his father one of the signers of the “Sam Houston treaty” between the Cherokee and affiliated tribes and the Republic of Texas, February 23, 1836. He … Read more

Biography of Walter J. Arnold

Walter J. Arnold. The county engineer of Shawnee County, Walter J. Arnold has led an active and diversified career, and although not yet forty-one years of age has crowded into his life more experiences than the ordinary man sees in an entire lifetime. From gold mining in Colorado to chasing the insurgents in the Philippines is a long call, but unlike many men whose activities have led them to out-of-the-way-places, Mr. Arnold has been constantly advancing, and each new experience, each new employment, has brought him a little bit further ahead toward the goal of success. In his present capacity, … Read more

Biography of William Timmerman

Western Terea Cotta Company of Kansas City, Kansas, is the only successful industry for the making of this building material, which has had such a remarkable growth of popularity in use during recent years, between Chicago and the extreme Pacific coast. It is an industry which reflects credit upon the growing importance of Kansas City, Kansas, and is the only concern of its kind in the state. Terra cotta, which is the Italian for “burnt clay,” is perhaps the oldest manufactured building material known in history. It has been manufactured in America only during the last forty or forty-five years … Read more

Biography of Thomas E. Trigg

Thomas E. Trigg. “A map of busy life” mused the poet Cowper more than a hundred years ago, over his newspaper. The description yet holds good, a century of existence only having widened its field and strengthened its power. With its modern perfected machinery for the garnering of news, and with its vivid portrayal of the world’s happenings, it is, indeed, a map of swiftly passing events, one that had become a necessary vitalizing element and an indispensable factor of every day living. How surely the development of a newspaper in a community marks the latter’s progress. A name well … Read more

Biography of William Warring Gordon

William Warring Gordon is now in his second term as chief of police of Kansas City, Kansas. An office fraught with so much importance and complicated with so many difficulties and responsibilities had received an administration from Mr. Gordon which had been a splendid tribute to his tact, forcefulness and efficiency as a public official. Mr. Gordon had spent the greater part of his life as a resident of Kansas and was a successful business man before he was called upon to administer his present office. He was born in Kentucky in Owen County on a farm June 13, 1874. … Read more